Love for God and the World
John 1:14
“God requires that we should love him eternally with our whole hearts, yet not so as to compromise or diminish our earthly affections.”
—LETTERS AND PAPERS FROM PRISON
Love for God and love for the world are not opposed to each other. Rather the opposite is true, namely, that love for God deepens our love for the world. Many Christians have the idea that true love for God should diminish our concern for the world, and that concern for the world will diminish our love for God. The latter is always a risk that we boldly need to take because the former is a serious distortion of the lesson of Jesus. Love for the world is not to embrace the worldliness of the world, but to embrace people and created reality.
Thought
The Incarnation is the greatest illustration of the fact that God is opposed to asceticism.
What is your prayer thought for today’s lesson?